Fight the NPO!

submitted by lahyde on Tuesday, March 2 2004 at 1:22 AM

The City of Raleigh, North Carolina originally implemented the Nuisance Party Ordinance in order to control the yearly Brent Road block party. Since the Ordinance's genesis, it has gone over-breadth and it seems to unfairly target college students attending North Carolina State University, along with Raleigh's other colleges and universities. In order to fight this ordinance, documentation of the City of Raleigh's unfair use of this ordinance is key. We are currently searching for personal stories from students attending North Carolina State University to strengthen our case.

From http://students.ncsu.edu/npo , you can check on our current progress against the Nuisance Party Ordinance in Raleigh, view testimonials of individuals who have received unnecessary tickets and post your own story of your encounters with the Raleigh Police Department. If you are interested in aiding our cause, find out how to help!

Visit http://students.ncsu.edu/npo today!

posted by JAllen1127 on Wednesday, March 3 2004 at 7:04 AM

I admire those taking advantage of the govermental system of this country by going through a logical and correct process to attempt to change what is perceived as an unfair law. How fortunate we all are to live in a country where we can indeed do this without fear of arrest (or worse).

As a long time Raleigh resident, I support the NPO. While you perceive it is "anti-partying", I see it as a needed way to attempt to insure that residential neighborhoods across the city do not have to indure activites that are not suited for these areas.

3/3/2004 8:45:07 AM

http://students.ncsu.edu/npo

3/3/2004 9:30:19 AM

If you find a politician that opposes the NPO please let us all know. I am sure that he/she will get ncsu students 100% backing. I think a local politician could use an extra 10,000 votes. Don't you?

3/3/2004 11:24:39 AM

In response to iphotou:
We perceive the NPO as a way of protecting residents from those who would show a complete disregard for their neighbors. However since it's inception it's become significantly more complicated than that. Since you are a graduate, it's understandable that you haven't seen all the press on the subject lately, so I would like to direct you to http://www.technicianonline.com/story.php?id=009033 for the stance of those opposed to the ordinance.

In response to NCSUHKY16:
If only 10,000 NCSU students would get out to vote from time to time that would be great. Student Government runs programs regularly to try to encourage voting, however apathy seems to always prevail and those numbers stay in the 800-1200 range. It's unfortunate that a population of around 30,000 undergrads can only muster around 1000 votes, but that's how it is.

3/3/2004 11:36:03 AM

how many people actually voted from the NCSU district in the last election?

3/3/2004 11:50:57 AM

according to http://msweb03.co.wake.nc.us/bordelec/downloads/20031028stats.xls
4591 (we're district 01-23)

[Edited on March 3, 2004 at 11:57 AM. Reason : .]

3/3/2004 11:56:00 AM

but a precious few were actual students....not many decide to register to vote in Wake Co.

3/3/2004 12:51:32 PM

I mean I know I voted, but when I put my ballot in, it said something like only 600 or so had been put in, and it was in the afternoon...

3/3/2004 12:56:56 PM

Ok, I believe in another report from that same website, it says of district 23, 691 (maybe 619, I'm too lazy to check) were from Witherspoon

3/3/2004 1:02:10 PM

Its ill-defined
Its selectively enforced
It encourages armed social rejects to wade among the "elite"(college students...um if you will...) giving them numerous opportunities to lose their already unstable control over their shiny new power complex. Im speaking not of the profession, but of the individuals..... have you met these people?

3/3/2004 1:28:06 PM

Ok, so we're getting a lot of people talking about the voting numbers and such, and of course the wonderfully biased assessment of the situation by fermat, but according to the website, still not a single person has submitted a story. With as much as people have been complaining about the ordinance, I would assume that at least a few of them would take the 5 minutes to fill out the little online form, but apparently I'm wrong.
So again, people, this is of importance to all of us whether you live off capus now or will someday, so PLEASE get your friends to file their stories, and file one yourself if you have one. I doubt there's a person on campus who doesn't know someone who's received a ticket, so we just need a little bit of action on everyone's part to have profound effect.

3/3/2004 4:16:20 PM

Get a life you dusch bags

3/3/2004 5:47:57 PM

aside from all that, the NPO is superfluous. What actions contained in the NPO are not already illegal? They say it's to help prevent underage drinking, raucous behavior, and general troublemaking. Those things are already covered by other laws (drinking age, "disturbing the peace," etc). The only thing the NPO actually does is allow the RPD to write tickets without specifically citing a charge.

3/3/2004 7:02:23 PM

haha college kids dont vote

they just complain

3/3/2004 7:44:45 PM

^^^ thanks for being a douche bag (the least you can do is learn to spell asshat)

what bothers me about the NPO is hearing about people that get cited for having 6 or 7 people over. that is just unacceptable. i believe, but might be remembering wrong, that their case was thrown out, but that is still abuse of power by the RPD.

this has been said before, but the only way to fight it is going to find parties in other districts of raleigh that have "nuisance parties" and dont get cited, and be able to provide credible evidence of that in court. that will show that the law is unfairly applied to college students.

3/4/2004 12:30:06 AM

I used to live on brent rd and the real problem was the cops. I couldn't even go home w/o a hassel on the weekends and parking was a bitch.

3/4/2004 1:19:02 AM

Explain to me why Raleigh should spend $35,000+ on breaking up a party?
And do you really think all the people that get NPO tickets surf TWW or are politically inclined?
The effort to defeat the NPO has passed, and unless you make a HUGE ruckus about it, then no one will think they can fight back.

[Edited on March 4, 2004 at 1:39 AM. Reason : iufd]

3/4/2004 1:38:47 AM

Quote :

"haha college kids dont vote"

Fix that first. I agree with the sentiment re the NPO, but until you boost student turnout there's not going to be a damn soul in this City (with any hope of getting elected) that's going to pay anti-NPO forces much attention.

[Edited on March 4, 2004 at 12:27 PM. Reason : ---]

3/4/2004 12:27:25 PM

ah chill out....go pack and drink more beer...all good in the neighborhood

3/4/2004 2:25:28 PM

What is your definition of "biased" and how can you say that your comments aren't wonderfully biased?... once you've hashed out the first part of this question.

3/4/2004 11:44:41 PM

i used to live on brent rd.

cops would threaten us in our own yards

we had twenty people over, not being loud, some black guys were on the street, walked onto our driveway and proceeded to call an officer who had pulled someone over "cracker" the cop walks into my house, says we have 1 minute to get everyone out. people leaving out both exits and he comes running in with handcuffs screaming 1 minute 1 minute

he handcuffs my roomate and sits him on the couch. i get pissed and asked him what the fuck he was doing back in my house. he claims that by us allowing the black guys walking down the street in our driveway (like we knew about it) that we were in violation. i got pissed and called my lawyer who asked me to get their names and badge numbers. they uncuff my roomate, say "this is a warning" and leave. such is the bullshit that made me leave that area.

3/5/2004 7:26:11 PM

Quote :

"What is your definition of "biased""

when you think of partying, what group of people first comes to mind?

3/15/2004 12:16:50 AM